(L-R): Michel Danechi, Portfolio Manager, Armajaro Emerging Markets Fund and Richard Gower, Chief Executive Officer, Armajaro Asset Management

Amid the 2008 financial crisis and the ensuing flight from hedge funds, Armajaro Asset Management LLP provided its investors with a place of refuge from the storms. Its three existing commodities funds generated positive performance and managed to attract significant additional allocations from existing and new investors.

This saw Armajaro break into The Hedge Fund Journal’s 2009 EUROPE50 ranking in 43rd place with assets under management of $1.6 billion. Combined with Armajaro’s securities and soft commodities origination, trading and distribution business, the asset management arm is set to grow with the launch of the Armajaro Emerging Markets Fund.

The timing of the new fund owes much to the credit tsunami of September 2008. Portfolio manager Michel Danechi had spent the previous year as head of emerging market equities with Lehman Brothers International, building up the London-based business to a 35-strong team. In that role he oversaw the derivatives and cash portfolios and coordinated Lehman’s expansion into Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

That background, and Danechi’s 15-year track record in emerging markets and derivatives, proved an ideal spring board for him to join Armajaro and begin putting in place an emerging markets fund. Richard Gower, the chief executive of Armajaro AM, says the move shows the firm’s ability to expand opportunistically, while tapping areas related to its core expertise.